42S 



NA TURE 



[March 6, 1902 



of the college to give an equal sum, conditionally upon the 

 college being incorporated in the University of London, and 

 concurs in the resolution of the council to enter into negotiation 

 with the University with a view to the incorporation." lie 

 said the idea of incorporation was not a new one, because when 

 the statutory commissioners were sitting for the purpose of 

 framing the statutes for the reconstitution of the University of 

 London, the council represented to them the intention of the 

 founders and benefactors of University College would only be 

 carried out by incorporation. The commissioners, however, 

 felt that the terms of the Act did not make it possible for them 

 to give effect to the proposal. The council had not abandoned 

 the policy, and since the beginning of the present year events 

 had taken place that brought it within the range of speedy 

 realisation. With regard to the appeal for funds, it was quite 

 obvious that if the work which was Ijeing carried out was to be 

 continued, the funds would need a much larger increase. Lord 

 Monkswell, who seconded the resolution, hoped there would be 

 many rich men who would follow the example of their anonymous 

 benefactor. He trusted that the negotiations which they were 

 having with the University of London would be successful, and 

 said that no conciliatory etTorts on their part would be wanting. 

 The resolution was adopted. 



The address delivered before the Association of Technical 

 Institutions on January 31, by the president. Lord Avebury, is 

 published in the oflicial report of the proceedings of the meeting. 

 The address was, in a large part, a plea for more liberal recog- 

 nition of science and modern languages in the time-tables of 

 our schools, supported by the opinions of commissions and other 

 competent authorities. Classics has at present too large a portion 

 of the available time, and science is only tolerated. " An educa- 

 tion which excludes science is a one-sided education, and the 

 niost learned classical scholar, if he knows nothing of science, 

 is but a half-educated person after all." But the question is not 

 so much one of culture as of equipment for national progress. 

 When, as Lord Avebury remarks, we find commission after 

 commission (composed of men selected tor their wisdom and 

 experience), after careful and patient inquiry, one after the other, 

 and with remarkable unanimity, pointing to the neglect of science 

 and of modern languages in our educational system as a grave 

 evil, it must surely be worth while to inquire whether these 

 warnings have been taken to heart, or the recommendations 

 have been carried into effect. Lord Avebury gives instances, 

 most of which are known to readers of Nature, of industrial 

 progress in Germany due to technical training. " It is evident 

 then,'' he concludes, " that the technical instruction of Germany 

 has been a very remunerative investment ; in the first instance, 

 no doubt, a great national advantage, but a boon also to the 

 world as a whole. These figures bring home to us clearly the 

 importance of the subject. It is obvious how keen competition 

 is going to be. If we are to hold our own, we must supplement 

 the rule of thumb in our workshops — very important in itself— 

 by the rule of brain. Emerson once said that this country ' is 

 prosperous because steam is half an Englishman.' We all hope 

 that Britannia may long rule the waves, but it is most important 

 that she should rule the steam engine and the dynamo as well." 



SCIENTIFIC SERIAL. 

 American Journal of Malheiimlics, vol. xxiv. No. i, January. 

 — Cyclic subgroups of the simple ternary linear fractional 

 group in a (iaiois field, by L. E. Dickson. This paper is an 

 addition to the author's previous one in vol. xxii. pp. 231-252. 

 It gives proofs of results therein stated and adds some new 

 theorems allied to them. The question discussed concerns the 

 substitutions 



.v' = a''x, _yi =a'_)', 3' = a"''~'c, 



where a is a primitive root of the (lalois field of order />". Two 

 cases arise according to the value of the greatest common divisor 

 rfof 3 and/" - I. — Curves of triple curvature, by J. G. Hardy. 

 The object of the paper is to add to the results which have been 

 obtained concerning curves L of triple curvature. Equations of 

 motion for systems in a four- dimensional space have been deduced 

 and used to introduce the notion of an instantaneous plane of 

 rotation. The derivation is not new, but it is retained for the 

 sake of clearness. By constructing the principal tetrahedroid at 

 a point of a curve of triple curvature and studying its motion by 

 means of the kinematical equations obtained, geometrical 



NO. 1688, VOL. 65] 



interpretations of the six rotations and also a set of formula: 

 corresponding to the Serrct-Frenet formulae for curves of 

 double curvature have been arrived at. These formulce have 

 been applied to the study of curves L and, in particular, of the 

 osculating hypersphere and the locus of its centres. Many of 

 the results were contained in a paper read liefore the mathemat- 

 ical seminary of the Johns Hopkins University in 1S98, and so 

 were antecedent to the articles by Prof. Lovett and Mr. 

 Ilatzidakis in vol. xxii. The subject may be studied in Brunei, 

 liluth. Ann. xix. p. 48 ; Pirondini, Giom. di Mat. xxviii. 

 p. 237 ; and Piccioli, Giom. di Mat. xxxvi. p. 273. — Primary 

 prime functions in several variables, and a generalisation of an 

 important theorem of Dedekind, by H. Hancock. Reference is 

 made to Kronecker, " Grundziige," &c., § 4, p. II ; Runge, 

 Crelle, Bd. xcix. p. 89 ; Mandl, Crelle, cxiii. p. 252 ; Meyer, 

 Math. .4nn. Bd. xxx. p. 30, and to other memoirs. — On certain 

 properties of the plane cubic curve in relation to the circular 

 points at infinity, by R. A. Roberts. In this second part, which is 

 on certain plane cubic curves and their angles of mtersection, 

 with some account of conies cutting orthogonally, the author 

 investigates some methods of generating certain plane cubic 

 curves in such a way that their angles of intersection assume a 

 simple form. — Estimate of Peirce's linear as.sociative algebra, 

 by II. E. Ilawkes. In the fourth volume of the Journal there 

 appeared a memoir by Peirce in which he attempted to classify 

 and enumerate hyper-complex number-.systems. This does 

 not seem to have received on the Continent the credit it deserves. 

 In order that it should receive due recognition, Mr. Ilawkes claims 

 that three questions must be discussed, viz., what problem did 

 Peirce attack, and to what extent did he solve it? what relation does 

 this problem bear to that treated by Study and Schefters ? and to 

 what extent do Peirce's methods assist in the solution of that 

 problem ? In the present article, Mr. Hawkes discusses the first 

 two questions, and discusses the last in the Transactions of the 

 American Mathematical Society, vol. iii. A historical review ac- 

 companies the article. It may be remembered that Mr. Spottis- 

 woode drew attention to Peirce's work in his presidential address 

 before the London Mathematical Society (vol. IV. p. 152); seealso 

 Cayley, "Collected Works," xi. p. 465 ; xii. p. 465. — Ur. G. A. 

 Miller furnishes a short note on groups defined by the orders of 

 two generators and the order of their product. — A fine portrait 

 of Prof Benjamin Peirce is given with the number. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, December 12, 1901. — "The Eflective Tem- 

 perature of the Sun." By W. E. Wilson. D.Sc, F.R.S. 



In a memoir by the author and Mr. P. L. Gray, entitled 

 " Experimental Investigations on the Effective Temperature of 

 the Sun," published in the /^hil. Trans. Roy. Soc. A. vol. 

 clxxxv. (1894), the method described was as follows: — A 

 beam of sunlight reflected from a Stoney single-mirror heliostat 

 was directed into one aperture of a Boys' differential radio- 

 micrometer. The other aperture received the radiation from a 

 small circular area of a strip of platinum raised to any desired 

 temperature by an electric current, this temperature being 

 measured by the linear expansion of the platinum as in Joly's 

 meldometer. Knowing then the ratio of angular diameter of 

 r.idiating area of platinum to that of sun, the temperature of the 

 platinum strip, the emissivity of bright platinum, and the amount 

 of the sun's radiation lost by absorption in the earths atmosphere 

 and by reflection from the heliostat mirror, it is possible in any 

 assumption of a law connecting radiation with temperature to 

 determine the effective solar temperature. The mean of a 

 series of very accordant observations gave 6200° C. (absolute). 



To protect the incandescent strip from draughts of air it was 

 covered with a water-jacket of gilded brass. Possibly some of 

 the radiation from distant parts of the strip may have been re- 

 flected between the polished walls and the strip itself and, 

 ultimately escaping through the circular aperture fronting the 

 radio-micrometer, reached it and so vitiated the result. Smoking 

 the interior of the water-jacket sensibly reduced the amount of 

 radiation and so proved this surmise correct. 



It is also possible that changes in the surface condition of the 

 platinum may effect its emissivity, which in the original memoir 

 was taken at 0'35 that of lamp-black (Rosetti's estimate), so 

 that it is a distinct advantage to abolish the platinum strip as a 

 .source of radiation and to substitute a uniformly heated en- 

 closure which would radiate as an absolutely black body. 



